


When The Bough Breaks

by fuladaris



Series: And Down We Will Come [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Backstory, Child Death, F/M, Flashbacks, M/M, Minor Character Death, Non-Graphic Violence, Origin Story, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Originally Posted on Tumblr, Pregnant Woman Death, although i do tend to write kakuzu and hidan as romantically involved so, chapter 1 is definitely very squint for kakuhida, discussed in chapter 2, even back when it was just a one shot i was picturing it that way but, the kakuhida is more prominent in chapter 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 06:35:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29327892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fuladaris/pseuds/fuladaris
Summary: Kakuzu reflects on his past, because when he was thrown in prison, his dignity and humanity weren't the only things he lost.
Relationships: Hidan & Kakuzu (Naruto), Hidan/Kakuzu (Naruto), Kakuzu (Naruto) & Original Character(s), Kakuzu (Naruto)/Original Female Character(s)
Series: And Down We Will Come [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2173764
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So a while ago, I reblogged an ask meme to my kakuhida blog about things from their pasts that they aren't over. This is the only one I ended up writing at the time (I have another one drafted though that I really should finish whoops-) but anyway I'm pretty fond of this backstory headcanon so I thought I'd post it here, too!

How long had it been, now? Thirty years? Fifty years? ...Seventy? _Where_ would she be? How _old_ would she be? What _rank_ would she be?

_ How long had it even **been** since he’d left the Hidden Waterfall? _

Occasionally, these questions bubbled up to the surface, this sense of confusion over the time, over the years - but it wasn’t the _time_ that bothered him, anyway, _or_ how swiftly it passed him by. After all, what was a decade or four to a man who had lived nearly a century?

No, what bothered him was - those what ifs. Those could-have-beens. Those _should_ -have-beens.

Groaning, he passes a hand over his eyes, as he stands before the mirror - strange eyes, _inhuman_ eyes. Had his eyes _always_ looked like this? Always green, surely, but the red... _That_ was from the jutsu. So were a good chunk of the scars - but _not_ the ones on his face, the stitched up smile he seldom felt like expressing for real.

He tries to remember what he looked like, before. He knows he hasn’t aged much, physically, knows that he does not at all _look_ the way a man in his nineties _ought_ to look. ~~Knows Hidan is never serious, when he calls him an _ugly_ old man.~~

Still, he wonders: Would _she_ have looked like him, with green eyes like his and a pointed nose like his, with tanned skin and dark brown hair? Or would she have had blue eyes, like her mother, and pale skin and even darker hair? Most likely a mix of those features, for genetics did not work the way a _cloning_ technique did - but, he hopes she would have gotten his _eyes_ , at least, and that hers would be more bright and inquisitive than _his_ had been, in his youth, for isn’t that what people said? ”Aww, look, honey - she has your eyes!”

Just once, he would have liked to hear that, and, hell, would she even _be_ young, anymore?

And would she have _laughed_ like her mother, light and carefree? Would she have worn her hair long like he did? Earth nature, like his, or Water, like her mother’s? Or _both_? Would she have even _wanted_ to be a kunoichi?

_ What could I have taught you... _

(”Yo, Kakuzu, you’ve been in the bathroom for, like, fifteen minutes, and you haven’t even turned the shower on! You finally bite it in there, or what?”)  


_ This is how you use Earth Spear. This is how you throw a kunai. This is how you **block** a kunai. This is how you grow up to be strong, just like your father. This is how you count money quickly. This is how you read old kanji in ancient works, since you’re a good and careful girl, and can look at Papa’s old books all you want, because he trusts you to be gentle with them. This is how you know when he’s proud of you (but he’s always proud of you, is the twist, so of course you can always know). This is how you fall asleep studying, so he has to move you to your room. _

(”I’m coming in, jackass, I need a shower, too, you know! Fucking selfish-”) 

_ This is how you sing her a lullaby. This is how you wake her up when she has a nightmare. This is how you keep her safe from enemies. This is how- _

(”Hey, fuck, man, are you _**crying**_?! What the fu- What happened?!”)  


_This is how you watch the light fade from your wife’s eyes, eyes that might have been hers-_

(”Kakuzu! Come on, buddy, you’re scaring me-”)

_ This is how you hold your infant daughter, this is how you love your little girl, if only she’d ever been born. _


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requests for a continuation + More prompt fills from that ask meme to do = This one-shot has now become a two-shot! I also put this in a series, since there's one more ask to fill out; that fic will come with a touch of Kakuzu's past and a whole lot of Hidan's.
> 
> Just like with chapter 1, the full text of this chapter has also been posted on tumblr.

Hidan sits on the bathroom counter; Kakuzu sits on the bathroom floor, head on his knees; and neither man says a word for a long while until Hidan finally, hesitantly, opts to sit on the floor beside his partner instead.

“You wanna talk about anything, man?” he asks, quietly, and when Kakuzu doesn’t respond, Hidan sighs and touches his shoulder. He expects Kakuzu to flinch and withdraw, or to swat his hand away, but he doesn’t, and so Hidan takes a risk and tightens the hold. “Look, you aren’t the kind of guy who cries, right? So, uh... _Something_ had to fucking happen. Did you want to tell me about it, or...?”  


“ _No_ ,” Kakuzu half-groans, half-growls, and Hidan takes the hint to let go of his shoulder.

“Well...You want me to just sit in here until you feel better, then?” That’s what people did, right, when someone they ~~cared about~~ had to work with was in distress?  


There’s a long pause, before Kakuzu finally speaks again: “Do whatever you like.”

Hidan stays.

***

“Is it cool if I take a shower?” Hidan asks, after some more time has passed, and Kakuzu has shown no desire to get up off the floor or to return to his usual stoic demeanor. 

(Hidan had nestled against Kakuzu’s side by this point, resting his head on his shoulder, for physical contact had always been grounding for _him_ , and he’d hoped it would be for Kakuzu, too. It wasn’t working entirely, on the one hand - but, on the other, his _breathing_ , at least, had returned to the slow, measured state that Hidan was _used to_ from him, and so Hidan counted it as a small victory.)

“I said to do whatever you like.”  


“I’m just asking. And, uh, you can stay in here, if you want,” Hidan offers, as he rises to his feet, shoots a ~~concerned~~ glance down to his teammate. “You know, if you decide you need to talk.”  


“I don’t need to talk about anything.”  


“...If you say so, man.”

***

Shortly after Hidan turns on the shower, however, he hears Kakuzu’s voice, faintly, above the noise of the water: “I had a wife, once.”

“You did?”  


Kakuzu doesn’t answer, so Hidan tries again. “Like, before you left the Waterfall?”

“What are you on about?”  


With an annoyed grunt, Hidan passes a hand over his eyes. _You’re not serious, are you, Kakuzu?_ he thinks. _You want to tell me about what’s on your mind but don’t want me to acknowledge it? Fuck, man, if you want to get something off your chest, just fucking tell me. You don’t need to pretend I can’t hear you to spill your guts. Try and **trust me** , you old bastard._

Although, no - no, this tracked for Kakuzu, didn’t it? He wasn’t religious, so of course the idea of “confessing” wouldn’t come naturally to him. He was also a very private man, and proud, and stubborn, and all manner of _other_ things that made heartfelt discussions of the past anathema to him - even if Hidan was, for once, actually offering to hear him out.

_Fucking **hell** , Kakuzu. You really **are** emotionally stunted. But fine. Fine! I’ll play along._

“Nothing. Forget it.”

Still, the bathroom stays silent, as Hidan waits, as he lathers his hair, and he thinks that must have been the end of it, whatever Kakuzu had wanted to say. Maybe it was the anniversary of her death, or something, for there was no way she was still _alive_ , and maybe _that_ was what had his partner in a funk.

_I mean, Kakuzu **is** fucking **ancient** -_

And then Kakuzu speaks again. “I watched her die, right in front of me. She was pregnant when they killed her.”

_Holy fuck._

_Was she, like, killed in action?_ Hidan almost asks, but he remembers that Kakuzu does not want his grief acknowledged, and so he keeps quiet, waiting for the rest of the story to come. 

“It was part of my - punishment. When I failed to kill the First Hokage.”  


_**Oh**. Oh, Kakuzu... _

“It wasn’t enough just to throw me in jail. They needed to take _everything_ from me. They dragged her into my cell, threw her on the ground in front of me, and then - I had to watch them- right through her heart-” 

Kakuzu takes in a shuddering breath, and Hidan is torn between keeping up their game of pretending he can’t hear, and reaching out to offer his support. 

However, before he can decide either way - Hidan hears Kakuzu stand, and open the bathroom door. 

“You want to know why I don’t believe in anything except for money?” Kakuzu asks, quietly. “Because _gods_ don’t save people, Hidan, and villages betray you. You can spend your whole life being loyal and talented, but after one failure, it will all mean nothing. Little brats like you don’t understand that. But money? Money _always_ talks, and does exactly what you expect it to. That’s the only thing that hasn’t changed in all these decades.”

The door closes behind him, and it takes several long seconds before Hidan finds himself able to move again.

***

When Hidan finally decides it’s okay to emerge from the bathroom, he sees Kakuzu sitting at their room’s table, balancing his checkbook. “You’re lucky we don’t have to pay for the water,” the older man growls. “Took you long enough in there.”

( _Are you okay?_ Hidan wants to ask, but he knows better.)  


“Oh, please. You keep us sleeping in the woods all the fucking time - the least you can do is let me take as long of a shower as I want when we have a _room_.” Hidan flops on the bed. “I’m gonna live the dream here, in your cute little cheap inn.”  


“You do that.”

( _Are you okay?_ Hidan still wants to ask, but he still knows better.)  


“You know what I could go for?”  


“I’m not buying you ribs.”  


“I was gonna say monkfish, jackass.” He smiles, when Kakuzu pauses. “That’s one of the things you like, isn’t it?”  


“...They don’t have good seafood in this town,” Kakuzu says, after a moment, although there’s a ghost of a smile on _his_ face, too, and Hidan - not for the first time - wonders just how many different places Kakuzu has been to. “Another day, perhaps.”  


“Fine, but you owe me.”

“I pay for everything, actually, so _you_ owe _me_.”

“Fuck you.”

This is nice, though, and normal, for them. And Kakuzu seems back to his usual grouchy self, at least, which Hidan appreciates. Still, his eyes linger on Kakuzu’s prison tattoos - his facial scars - the heart masks on his back - and his _mind’s_ eye wanders back to everything Kakuzu had revealed in the bathroom-

“Are you okay?” he finally asks out loud, and Kakuzu doesn’t acknowledge him. 

How hard it is to tell, if that’s his _normal_ lack of acknowledgement or not.


End file.
